Thursday, September 10, 2009

Step Away from the Caffeine

Over at Arizona's Own Espresso Pundit the often smart but always partisan Greg Patterson is not as smart but very partisan on the topic of Arizona's "Resign to Run" law. My takefrom about a week ago, ahem, is here. The law in question was passed by voters in 1980 but Patterson makes a bizzare inference:

While the Star and other members of the media believe that the purpose of law is to prevent distraction, the real purpose is to ensure that Joe Arpaio doesn't run for Governor while remaining Sheriff.

Greg finds a way to list several elected officials and some potential race they might engage. OK, big deal. Why not mention Rep. Ray Barnes who actually has filed a Committee a full 600+ days before the General Election? Where's the reference to Sen. John Huppenthal who has bragged about gathering signatures for his next run since April? The truly silly moment of his subpar effort is this:

The Star's editorial board finally acknowledged Godard and Sinema's violations of the law, but used them as an excuse to say that the law isn't working.

No where in the Star editorial do they acknowledge Sinema, Godard or even Goddard broke the law. No where. Patterson sees things where they do not exist. To parse out Greg's words is to engage in the question of what is is. While Greg never passes on an opportunity to bash newspapers (sometimes rightly) he does so with the skill sets of an even less popular profession, a dirty stinkin' lawyer!